Hillary And US Mideast Policy: Forward Into The Past!

Back to the Future was a great movie.
Forward into the Past is just the continuation of failed US policy in the Middle East.

Last night at the Saban Forum, Hillary Clinton made it clear that the US will continue to make Israeli construction an issue:

The United States will not shy from criticizing the sides in Israeli-Palestinian talks when they take unilateral actions, including when Israel builds in eastern Jerusalem, Hillary Rodham Clinton said..."Provocative announcements on East Jerusalem are counterproductive. And the United States will not shy away from saying so."

Of course, "unilateral actions" are only a problem when they are no unilateral concessions by Israel--but that is not the point of this post.

The point here is that Hillary went further than merely reiterating the issue that directly led to the derailing of his Mideast peace talk initiative.

Clinton went one step further, reviving the Saudi plan:

Clinton also offered the most pronounced to date U.S. endorsement of the Arab League Initiative, which proposes a blanket peace deal with all Arab countries in exchange for Israel's proximate return to the 1967 borders.

"This landmark proposal rests on the basic bargain that peace between Israel and her neighbors will bring recognition and normalization from all the Arab states," she said. "It is time to advance this vision with actions, as well as words. And Israel should seize the opportunity presented by this initiative while it is still available."

Clinton's wording, echoing Arab leaders' claim that the offer is time-sensitive and suggesting that it is Israel's responsibility to "seize" it, goes beyond previous U.S. statements that have merely praised the initiative as one of several positive proposals.

The Arab League Initiative is just another name for the Saudi plan--which Obama has not been pushing publicly for a while. I suppose that's because he was too busy making an issue of Israeli settlements.

Remember the Saudi plan?

Uzi Mahnaimi reported on November 16, 2008 that Obama was going to throw his full support behind the Saudi plan:

Barack Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967 borders deal

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League and backed by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party.

The proposal gives Israel an effective veto on the return of Arab refugees expelled in 1948 while requiring it to restore the Golan Heights to Syria and allow the Palestinians to establish a state capital in east Jerusalem.

On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world”, according to a senior Obama adviser.

You should know that, contrary to the article, the claim that Israel gets an "effective veto" on Arab refugees is not true. The actual text of the Saudi plan does not give Israel a veto on Arab refugees who want to return:

2b. Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

More to the  point, the Obama administration was quick to deny the claim they wanted to pursue the Saudi plan:

A senior adviser to Barack Obama on Sunday denied reports that the U.S. president-elect plans to throw his weight behind the 2002 Arab peace plan, which calls for Israel to withdraw from all territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for normalized ties with the Arab world.

But ever since that denial, Obama has been inching back towards the plan. By January 2009, Obama was publicly endorsing the Saudi plan that he denied endorsing just a few months earlier:

He [Obama] called on Arab governments to “act on” the promise of a Saudi-led 2002 Arab peace initiative by supporting the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas “taking steps towards normalising relations with Israel, and by standing up to extremism that threatens us all.”

This Saudi plan, which Obama apparently is going back to after his recent failed attempt at the peace talks, is about what you would expect from an Arab peace plan: make concrete demands from Israel, while offering vague assurances in return:

According to the text of Saudi peace plan, Israeli concessions would include:

o Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights to the lines of June 4, 1967 as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
o Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
o The acceptance of the establishment of a Sovereign Independent Palestinian State on the Palestinian territories occupied since the 4th of June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

And what would the Arab world offer in return? Assurances:

o Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

o Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

But don't think that this would come easily to the Arabs! Turki al-Faisal, King Faisal Center for Research & Islamic Studies in Riyadh, wrote in 2008 that the Arab world is making a big sacrifice in making peace with Israel:

The Arab world is willing to pay a high price for peace, not only recognizing Israel as a legitimate state but also normalizing relations and putting a permanent end to the state of hostilities that has existed since 1948.

Shmuel Rosner noted the twisted priorities of the Saudi idea of peace with Israel:

A "high price"? That's an odd way to put it. Ending hostilities is not a price the Arabs will be paying - it's the reward they will be getting, that we will all be getting, if an Israeli-Arab agreement is achieved.

In other words, the Saudi plan is the perfect plan for Abbas--once again demanding unilateral concessions from Israel, but nothing concrete from the Arabs. That is what Israel was faced with when dealing with Abbas, and now once again with the Saudi plan.

Remember that article from the Times that I quoted above?

On a visit to the Middle East last July, the president-elect said privately it would be “crazy” for Israel to refuse a deal that could “give them peace with the Muslim world”, according to a senior Obama adviser.

So not only will construction continue to be an issue, but now Obama is going to bring out the Saudi plan, the one that he once claimed would give Israel "peace with the Muslim world"

Back then, Obama apparently thought that Israel was crazy.
The question is whether Obama really thinks Israel is crazy now.

Technorati Tag: Obama and Saudi Plan and Arab League Initiative .